Insights from 3 Investment Gurus on the Trend of Thai Investors Directly Purchasing Foreign Funds Amid K-Shaped Global Economic Recovery

FinVest, an investment application, in collaboration with the Stock Exchange of Thailand, hosted an online seminar titled "Soaring Investment in Foreign Stock Markets" to update on the latest movements in the global financial market and interesting mega-trend funds. This marks a new opportunity for Thai retail investors to directly buy and sell foreign funds for the first time through the FinVest application, while exchanging views with 3 investment experts: Mr. Kitti Sutthiaratsilp, Assistant Manager of Strategic Initiatives & Industry Utility at the Stock Exchange of Thailand; Mr. Chonlachat Khemaratana, CEO of Robowealth Group; and Mr. Pasu Liptapallop, Executive Director of Proud Real Estate Public Company Limited, who are successful investors with extensive experience in the regional financial market.

Mr. Chonlachat Khemaratana stated that the direction of the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis will follow a K-shaped recovery, where investors should consider structuring their investment portfolios based on industries and countries that recover quickly, rather than using a Home Bias approach that divides investments into domestic and foreign categories.

Industries and countries positioned at the top of the K are those less affected by the COVID-19 crisis, recovering quickly and continuing to grow, including the health sector, clean energy, and technology, with the United States and China leading the way.

Conversely, the industries at the bottom of the K are those that are recovering slowly or have not yet shown signs of recovery, such as the tourism sector, which is a key driver of Thailand's economy and will take some time before economic activities in tourism return to normal. This broader perspective allows investors to identify opportunities to adjust strategies at different stages and capture investment signals from the global market more effectively.


K-shaped recovery

This analytical approach can yield long-term returns, as evidenced by the growth over the past decade of foreign stock indices, particularly the NASDAQ, which has increased more than fivefold, especially with Apple stocks now surpassing a market value of 80 trillion baht. Additionally, it includes stocks that Thai investors are already familiar with, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, Netflix, etc. This presents an opportunity for Thai investors to invest in these thriving stocks.

Selecting Investment Themes Aligned with Mega-Trends
Mr. Chonlachat Khemaratana further stated that Thai investors can choose to invest in foreign funds through Thematic Investment, allowing them to invest in leading companies across various themes simultaneously. They may select to hold 3-5 funds of interest at any given time.
5 Notable Global Mega-Trend Funds

  • Global Energy Transition Fund from Schroder ISF
    Invests in leading companies in the clean energy sector worldwide, aligning with the collective goal of global leaders to achieve climate change mitigation.
  • Robeco Smart Mobility Fund from Robeco
    Invests in leading companies in electric vehicle technology and autonomous vehicles, following the automotive industry's revolution as top brands increasingly focus on producing EVs.
  • Blockchain Innovation Fund from BNY Mellon
    Invests in companies developing blockchain technology across various industries, which is believed to become the new internet of the future.
  • Healthcare Innovation Fund from Schroder ISF
    Invests in new medical technologies and services, such as surgical robots, telehealth, and the use of digital data for body analysis, including pharmaceutical products and vaccines like Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, etc.
  • Long Term Global Growth Fund from Baillie Gifford
    Invests in outstanding growth companies from around the world, such as Netflix, Tesla, Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba, etc.

On the other hand, Mr. Pasu Liptapallop shared his perspective that investing in new economy businesses presents an opportunity for the current generation to hold funds or stocks that represent the future of the world, particularly in blockchain. Starting to invest today is akin to going back 20-30 years when investors could own the internet from its early stages, which has now grown immensely. Additionally, he is personally interested in businesses that are intangible assets, leveraging cloud operations as there are no limitations regarding costs related to space, labor, and production for expanding customer bases, unlike industries in the old economy.


Mr. Pasu Liptapallop

New Opportunities for Thai Investors to Use Digital Platforms for Direct Global Fund Investments

Mr. Kitti Sutthiaratsilp mentioned that in 2020, Thai people became more aware of investment, opening a record-high of 200,000 portfolio accounts, showing significant interest in foreign stock markets. This led to foreign investment funds (FIF) accounting for one-third of the mutual fund market.


Mr. Kitti Sutthiaratsilp

Investing in foreign mutual funds may present varying opportunities for returns due to past limitations for novice or intermediate investors who are not ready to invest abroad through private banking or to purchase individual foreign stocks with minimum investments of hundreds of thousands or millions of baht. Therefore, they invest through Feeder Funds, which have management fees of 1-1.5% per year, a significant variable that affects the final returns.

The launch of the direct foreign fund trading feature (Offshore) on FinVest, an investment application developed in collaboration with Kasikorn Bank, Loo International, and Robowealth Group, is the first application in Thailand that allows investors to profit from direct foreign fund trading without incurring duplicate fees, offering more than 1,000 funds from 33 leading fund management companies worldwide.

Moreover, the successful integration of the FundConnext system of the Stock Exchange of Thailand with global fund trading systems enables FinVest's Open Architecture platform to process purchase orders in a single step. Investors can also purchase in Thai Baht at real-time exchange rates from Kasikorn Bank, making it easy for Thai investors to directly buy foreign funds through their smartphones with a minimum investment of just 30,000 baht per fund. This increases access for Thai investors to direct foreign fund investments while ensuring safety, as the Stock Exchange of Thailand records each investor's transactions and unit holdings.

Special! During the launch of the direct foreign mutual fund trading feature on FinVest from now until November 15, 2021, there are no fees for selling investment units (Front-end-fee) with no cap for the 5 recommended funds mentioned above. More details on the promotion can be found at https://finvest.onelink.me/CoWV/32e84f48.

Investors can download the FinVest application at https://finvest.onelink.me/CoWV/744f623a and can follow global investment trends on the FinVest Facebook page or the website https://bit.ly/3hMysNa.